In the wake of last week's passage of both state and local taxes on retail marijuana, some Boulder pot proponents -- and at least one member of the City Council -- want the city to abandon plans to delay the processing of recreational marijuana business licenses until March.

The City Council, at a special meeting Tuesday, will consider for the third and likely final time adopting Boulder's new recreational marijuana code.

Last week, the council agreed to push back from Jan. 2 to March 1 the date when the city's existing medical marijuana businesses will be able to begin applying for retail marijuana licenses.

Advocates for the local marijuana industry continue to object to that delay, arguing that it will put Boulder's pot businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

"You don't want consumers to get into the habit of driving to Denver to buy their marijuana," said Shawn Coleman, a lobbyist for the marijuana industry who lives in Boulder. "I think this is an issue where it really behooves the city to move up the license date as soon as is practicable."

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What: Boulder City Council's consideration of new recreational marijuana code

Councilman Macon Cowles agreed, saying he'd like to see Boulder move forward with retail marijuana licenses as soon as permitted by state law.

"I want to see it open on Jan. 2 if we possibly can," Cowles said. "I am going to be pushing for that again on Tuesday."

'You need training'

Boulder city staff's original draft ordinance delayed the ability of existing medical marijuana businesses to convert to recreational shops until June, but the council, at its Oct. 22 meeting, moved that up to Jan. 2.

That City Attorney's Office objected that Boulder simply did not have enough personnel to continue processing the 13 applications that were received on or before Oct. 22 and deal with the expected wave of conversion applications without forcing people to work 80 hours a week.

In response, the City Council, at its Oct. 29, meeting, moved the date at which existing medical marijuana businesses could apply to convert to recreational marijuana to March 1. Under the proposed ordinance, new medical and recreational businesses won't be able to apply for licenses until June.

Senior Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock reiterated that the licensing division is not properly staffed to begin accepting applications before March, and said hiring more staff would not help because new employees would require significant training.

"It's the type of thing you need training to be able to do and it takes more time to train people than just to get them done," Haddock said of the applications.

'Get this going as soon as possible'

Noting that Boulder voters supported Amendment 64 by a 3-to-1 margin, and earlier this week approved state and Boulder sales and excise taxes on recreational pot sales by wide margins, Cowles said it's clear the city's residents want to see the industry up and running.

With the tax revenues that should come in to Boulder -- including a 3.5 percent local sales tax and a 5 percent local excise tax on wholesale marijuana transfers in 2014 -- Cowles said the city should have more than enough money to implement the law.

"We need to get this going as soon as possible and get staffed up as necessary in order to accomplish this," Cowles said. "We know we have the tax money available."

Coleman, the industry lobbyist, noted that Boulder will receive 15 percent of all state sales taxes collected on recreational pot sold inside city limits.

"With the taxes, and particularly with the state tax passing, they will have significant revenue to backfill on any expanses they make on the front end for hiring new staff," Coleman said. "Boulder is the only city that has not only a special sales tax, but also a special excise tax. It is going to be more than covered and I don't think there is any reason they should not as soon as possible hire the staff to be sure they are ready for the retail marijuana market."

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